History of Treblinka

accumulated to such a point that the putrid odor of decaying human remains could be smelled for approximately 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) in every direction. It was self-evident that mass extermination was taking place at the camp, which caused panic among the villagers.

The onset of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising inspired renewed hopes for an escape among the Treblinka Sonderkommandos. On 19 April 1943 one of the last Jewish transports of 7,000 victims along with the Warsaw insurgents were brought in for gassing. Soon later Treblinka became the first death camp ever to experience a prisoner uprising against the SS, which erupted on 2 August 1943 under the leadership of former Polish Army officer Dr. Berek Lajcher.

The first commandant of the camp from July 11, 1942 until 31 August 1942 was Irmfried Eberl, relieved of his duties for not being efficient and secretive enough about the camp's murder operation. He was succeeded by Franz Stangl (previously the commandant of Sobibor extermination camp) as the second commandant of Treblinka I Totenlager from 1 September 1942 until the 1943 Jewish uprising.

The Nazi hierarchy took measures to modify the killing process under Stangl, who built more efficient gas chambers and massive cremation pyres for the incineration of corpses. When the Treblinka death camp ended operations in October 1943, the Nazis attempted (in vain) to remove all evidence of its existence and the mass murder carried out there. Relatively little physical evidence remains. It can be examined at the Treblinka museum led by Edward Kopówka, with a steadily growing number of visitors. A second camp known as Treblinka II Arbeitslager, equipped with heavy machinery, was located 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from Treblinka. Between June 1941 and 23 July 1944, more than half of its